Resources
What we write, and the sources it builds on.
We invent no skill taxonomy of our own and no legal framework of our own. Both already exist, public and better maintained.
Every reference points to the primary source. We do not mirror content and we do not present other people's text as our own.
Thirteen articles, twenty nine sources
This page collects the material we actually use.
Our own material
13 articles
Classification and skill frameworks
4 sources
Law and codetermination
21 sources
Figures and studies
4 sources
The articles are worked from the primary sources, not from summaries.
Our own material
- Recognised qualification or certificate of attendance: what the Vocational Training Act makes of a learning path
Section 1 BBiG separates adaptation training, upgrading training and retraining. Only the second track leads to a regulated qualification, with minimum scopes of 400, 1,200 and 1,600 hours. How to tell which track a learning path is on.
- DGUV Information 209-093: the four levels behind the “high-voltage specialist”
Anyone working on high-voltage systems in production needs one of four qualification levels. The work decides which. The minimum scope depends on prior knowledge: 100, 48 or 24 teaching units for the same level 2E.
- Section 106 BetrVG: the economic committee is the second addressee of your conversion
Above 100 permanently employed staff in the company, an economic committee must be formed. Section 106 (2) requires it to be informed in good time, with documents, including the effects on workforce planning. Left undone, that is an administrative offence.
- After the cohort comes the transfer: section 99 BetrVG and the one-week deadline
Anyone who moves into the target role after qualification is, as a rule, transferred within the meaning of section 95 (3) BetrVG: a different area of work, for more than a month. Section 99 then requires the works council's consent before every single transfer.
- Article 86 of the AI Act: who owes the explanation, and since when
Since 2 August 2026 an affected person can require clear and meaningful explanations from the deployer. Unlike Article 22 GDPR, Article 86 does not require a solely automated decision, and the duty falls on the company, not the vendor.
- Article 4 of the AI Act has applied since 2 February 2025, and since July 2026 in a new version
The postponement to 2 December 2027 concerns Chapter III. Article 4 sits in Chapter I, knows no risk class and binds deployers as well as providers. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 replaced it and softened it.
- Artificial intelligence in the Works Constitution Act: the expert whose necessity is settled by statute
Section 80 (3) sentence 2 BetrVG declares that bringing in an expert counts as necessary as soon as the works council has to assess the introduction or application of artificial intelligence. The person, the scope and the fee stay negotiable. Whether does not.
- A conversion without a single dismissal is still an operational change
Section 111 sentence 3 nos. 4 and 5 BetrVG cover fundamental changes to the organisation of a plant and fundamentally new working methods. No job cuts are required. Behind it sits Section 113 BetrVG, measured by Section 10 KSchG.
- Section 81 (4) BetrVG: the conversation you owe every single employee
The same condition that triggers codetermination under Section 97 (2) BetrVG triggers a discussion with each affected person under Section 81 (4) sentence 2. And that person may bring a works council member along.
- When a skills system falls under the AI Act's high-risk rules
Annex III point 4(b) of the AI Act turns on a single test: whether the system allocates people on the basis of personal traits. What that means for a workforce qualification system, and from when.
- Section 82 SGB III: the thresholds that decide funded workplace training
More than 120 hours, as a rule a two-year gap, and an employer share that scales with headcount. What the statute sets out, and why a works agreement lowers the share.
- The Section 92 BetrVG document: what belongs in it, and the fine behind it
Section 92 BetrVG requires the works council to be informed about workforce planning on the basis of documents, in good time and comprehensively. Failing to do so is a regulatory offence under Section 121 BetrVG, fined up to 10,000 euros.
- Section 92a BetrVG: what the works council may propose, and what you then owe
The works council can propose qualification as a way of securing employment. It cannot codetermine it. But above 100 employees you owe a written, reasoned answer if you turn the proposal down.
What this builds on
We mirror no content and present no one else's text as our own. These twenty nine sources carry the articles above and the data model behind them.
Classification and skill frameworks
Without a shared framework, every skills discussion stays a discussion about words. These four sources provide the framework the QualiShift data model follows.
- ESCO, the European classification of occupations and skills
Useful as a common language for skills across language borders, because the same skill carries the same identifier in 28 languages. QualiShift follows ESCO, the open classification standard of the European Commission.
- O*NET, occupational database of the US Department of Labor
Useful when an activity needs a finer description than European occupational profiles give, for instance by tasks, tools and technologies. Published under CC BY 4.0 and usable commercially with attribution.
- German Qualifications Framework
Useful for making competence levels comparable instead of describing them with adjectives. Eight levels, split into professional competence and personal competence.
- Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training
Useful as the place to check what counts as a recognised apprenticeship occupation and what does not. The register lists 324 occupations, and the four standard training elements digitalisation, sustainability, law and safety apply to all of them.
Law and codetermination
The provisions and rule sets below decide when and in what form participation is owed, which qualification a task presupposes, and what attaches when it is skipped. Anyone planning a wave of qualification touches several of them at once. The German full texts are free to read at the Federal Ministry of Justice, the European ones at EUR-Lex.
- Section 92 BetrVG, workforce planning
Useful for understanding why the works council must be informed on the basis of documents, and why “in good time” means before the decision.
- Section 96 BetrVG, promoting vocational training
Useful for the case where the works council requires the training need to be identified. Subsection 1 turns that into an employer duty.
- Section 97 BetrVG, training facilities and measures
The central provision for transformation initiatives. Subsection 2 creates a genuine codetermination right as soon as work changes and existing knowledge is no longer sufficient.
- Section 98 BetrVG, carrying out workplace training
Useful for the question of how far codetermination reaches into content, and for the works council's right to propose participants.
- Section 94 BetrVG, questionnaires and assessment criteria
Useful for settling early whether a skill profile held per employee requires works council consent. On our reading that is very probably the case.
- Section 87 (1) no. 6 BetrVG, technical devices
Useful because settled case law holds that an objective capability to monitor behaviour or performance is already enough. Intent does not matter.
- Section 82a SGB III, qualification allowance
Useful as evidence that the legislator recognises qualification needs driven by structural change, including the threshold of 20 percent of the workforce. QualiShift gives no advice on public funding.
- Section 80 (3) BetrVG, bringing in experts
Useful for sentence 2: where the works council has to assess the introduction or application of artificial intelligence, bringing in an expert counts as necessary. Whether is then no longer negotiable.
- Section 81 (4) BetrVG, information and discussion
Useful because it holds the only duty that runs not to the body but to each individual employee, on the same condition as Section 97 (2).
- Section 90 (1) no. 3 BetrVG, planning of work processes
Useful because the use of artificial intelligence is named there expressly, and the information is owed at the planning stage.
- Section 95 BetrVG, selection guidelines and the definition of transfer
Useful twice over: subsection 2a clarifies that selection guidelines still require consent where artificial intelligence is used in drawing them up. Subsection 3 defines transfer for the whole Act: a different area of work, expected to last more than a month.
- Section 99 BetrVG, individual personnel measures
Useful for the day someone takes up the target role after qualification. Works council consent must be obtained before every transfer; subsection 3 gives the council one week.
- Section 106 BetrVG, economic committee
Useful because above 100 permanently employed staff in the company there is a second addressee, to be informed in good time and with documents, including the effects on workforce planning.
- Section 111 BetrVG, operational changes
Useful because sentence 3 nos. 4 and 5 require no dismissal, and sentence 2 gives the works council an adviser above 300 employees.
- Section 113 BetrVG, compensation for disadvantage
Useful for what attaches when an operational change is carried out without a reconciliation of interests even having been attempted.
- Section 10 Protection Against Dismissal Act, amount of compensation
Useful because Section 113 (1) BetrVG cross refers to it. It supplies the measure in months' earnings, graded by age and length of service.
- Vocational Training Act (BBiG), sections 1, 50b and 53 to 59
Useful for whether a learning path ends in a qualification or a certificate of attendance. Section 1 separates adaptation training, upgrading training and retraining; sections 53b to 53d set the minimum scopes of the three upgrading levels.
- DGUV Information 209-093, qualification for work on vehicles with high-voltage systems
Useful as the level model behind every high-voltage target role: four levels, with minimum scopes in production that depend on prior knowledge. August 2021 edition, not a statute, but the yardstick of the accident insurers.
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act
Useful for Annex III point 4, for the deployer obligations in Article 26 and for Article 4, which applies without any risk class. Always cite the version in force, not the original 2024 text.
- Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the AI Digital Omnibus
Useful because it replaces Article 4 in full and amends Article 113 (3). Without it you are reading application dates and wording that have been superseded since 27 July 2026.
- Article 22 GDPR, automated individual decision-making
Useful mainly as a boundary: the right applies only to a decision based solely on automated processing. Once a human decides it does not bite, and the question moves to Article 86 of the AI Act.
Figures and studies
These four sources carry every figure on this website. Which figure comes from which edition is set out, with its period, on the sources page.
- World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report
Useful for the share of core skills that changes and for how the training need is distributed across 100 workers. Watch the edition: the value has been falling since 2020.
- Federal Statistical Office
Useful for actual employment in vehicle manufacturing and among manufacturers of parts and accessories, meaning measured rather than projected developments.
- German Economic Institute
Useful for what companies actually spend on training, and for the skilled labour gap published by its Competence Centre for Securing Skilled Labour.
- Fraunhofer IAO, ELAB2040 study
Useful for the employment effect of the powertrain transition in European production. When citing it, keep three things straight: Europe, powertrain only, jobs at risk within a scenario.
Pointers welcome
A source missing here?
If you work with a standard or a survey we have overlooked, write to us. We add it to this page if it holds.